What It's Like to Be Young, Gay, and Jewish

Contents:

• WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUNG, GAY, AND JEWISH
• HOW N YOU BE GAY AND JEWISH?
• BEG GAY USED TO BE TERRIFYG. BEG JEWISH WAS EASY. NOW IT’S THE OPPOSE.
• JAKE COHEN: BEG GAY AND BEG JEWISH HAVE DICTATED MY CAREER
• LGBTQ PRI MONTH: OY VEY, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS GAY?
• MY SECRET LIFE AS A GAY ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEW

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUNG, GAY, AND JEWISH

As social attus toward lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) people have unrgone a sea change globally, stanc taken by Jewish lears and movements have changed along wh, same-sex marriag are regnized by the Reform, Conservative, Renewal and Renstctnist movements, and each movement’s rabbil semary ordas LGBTQ stunts. A later, the Conservative movement reversed s longstandg ban on gay sexual activy and reversed s policy of not ordag gay and lbian rabbis.

All the chang were preced by the Renstctnist movement, which began beme the first movement to accept gays and lbians as rabbil stunts 1984 and whose rabbis have long been ee to officiate at same-sex while the liberal Jewish muny has shifted markedly on this issue, homosexualy remas a vexg issue Orthodoxy, which ntu to hold fast to the Torah’s seemgly flexible rejectn of homosexual acts.

HOW N YOU BE GAY AND JEWISH?

” Many thori nsir this prohibn to be one of Judaism’s rdal ss and believe mt not be transgrsed even at the threat of one’s Readg the Prohibn Agast Homosexualy ContextEven the most tradnally-md terpreters of the verse acknowledge that the Torah do not prohib homosexualy as such, but merely one specific sexual act — generally unrstood to be anal sex between two men. However, later rabbic thori expand the prohibn to clu lbian sexual acts and all male homosexual activi short of anal terurse.

The biblil vers are also generally not unrstood as rejectg homosexuals as dividuals, but merely homosexual differ sharply along nomatnal The Reform movement was the first of the major nomatns to take a liberal posn toward homosexualy, adoptg the first of many rolutns on behalf of gays and lbians 1977. The movement’s rabbil school, Hebrew Unn College — Jewish Instute of Relign, ceased discrimatg agast gay applints 1990.

BEG GAY USED TO BE TERRIFYG. BEG JEWISH WAS EASY. NOW IT’S THE OPPOSE.

Conservative: In 2006, the Conservative movement nclud a polarizg bate over homosexualy wh the endorsement of two ntradictory opns — one upholdg the movement’s prev rejectn of gay relatnships, and another retag the Torah prohibn on male anal sex but allowg for other forms of sexual timacy between members of the same sex. Orthodox: Orthodox Jews on the whole ntue to reject homosexual behavr as fundamentally nsistent wh Jewish law.

While there is ltle ditn that this posn is severely ntted wh that muny, let alone likely to change the near future, there have been iativ to make Orthodox muni more welg of gay Jews. A statement thored 2010 and signed by over 200 Orthodox rabbis exprsly weled gay Jews fully to synagogue life even as reerated tradnal Orthodox opposn to gay sex and same-sex marriage.

And a number of grassroots groups for gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr Orthodox Jews and their fai have emerged, cludg JQY and about gay marriage? The Reform movement now nsirs same-sex marriage to qualify as kiddh — the rabbic term for betrothal, a holy unn between two 2012, the same three Conservative rabbis who thored the more liberal opn on homosexualy noted above published a seri of ruals and documents pertag to same-sex marriage ceremoni and divorce. Other Conservative rabbis, believg that gay marriage mt enjoy the same stat as tradnal heterosexual marriage, have sisted on applyg the tradnal marriage ruals wh only the most mor modifitns genred language.

JAKE COHEN: BEG GAY AND BEG JEWISH HAVE DICTATED MY CAREER

Conversn therapy — sometim also lled reparative or change therapy — refers to the effort to “cure” gays of same-sex attractn and enable them to lead heterosexual liv. Though the largt Orthodox rabbil group, the Rabbil Council of Ameri, had at one time mend JONAH’s work, publicly whdrew s endorsement 2012, cg evince that the therapy was effective and had potentially negative the Orthodox muny still support nversn therapy, however, part bee they believe is impossible that homosexual sir uld be both unchangeable and proscribed by the Torah.

The issue of transgenr people Judaism is of more recent vtage than the qutn of homosexualy, but attus among the major nomatns track que siarly.

The Reform Hebrew Unn College—Jewish Instute of Relign has been acceptg gay applints sce 1990, and the Renstctnist movement’s rabbil school has been dog so sce 1984.

LGBTQ PRI MONTH: OY VEY, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS GAY?

The Conservative movement’s flagship Jewish Theologil Semary revised s applitn creria 2007 to allow for gay applints and admted s first openly gay stunts the followg year. Orthodox semari still do not perm openly gay stunts; however there is at least one Orthodox gay rabbi who me out subsequent to his is the LGBTQ muny treated Israel? Israel has regularly touted s achievements on gay rights as a sign of s progrsive Wtern worldview, a practice some crics have rid as an attempt at “pkwashg” — that is, to distract om s treatment of the more on LGBTQ Jewish life, vis MyJewishLearng’s Khet blog.

MY SECRET LIFE AS A GAY ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEW

Two vers Levic (Levic 18:23 and Levic 20:13) exprs unequivol nmnatn of male homosexual sex (although is not clear whether what is referred to is terurse or all sexual acts between men). ”READ: Puttg The Prohibn Agast Homosexualy ContextAs evint by s language, the biblil prohibn do not extend to female homosexual acts, though later mentators disapproved of lbianism.

One rabbic source associat female homosexualy wh the activi of the Egyptians and Canaan, om which the Jews are supposed to absta. Several tradnal sourc temper the harshns of the “abomatn” by cg the lack of procreative potential as the reason for the abomable nature of the homosexual act.